Kamala Harris Schooled Joe Biden On Racial Inequality

Senator Kamala Harris had a message for former Vice President Joe Biden throughout the second half of the second Democratic primary debate night — and she made it personal.


On June 27, the moderators turned to the question of race issues In the United States by first asking Mayor Pete Buttigieg about the race relations problems in his police department in South Bend, Indiana. They were about to wrap the conversation up, as soon as Harris stopped the rest of the speakers.


“As the only Black person on stage, I would like to speak on the offer problem of race,” Harris said.


The moderators mentioned they would give her 30 seconds, yet let her speak in back of her allotted time.


She mentioned she doesn’t know a sole Black man who hasn’t been discriminated against. She instructed them story of a neighbor she had as a child; that ladies parents wouldn’t let her play with Harris and her sister because they were Black. Then, she took the conversation to Biden.


“I don't believe you're a racist. And I agree with any time once you commit yourself to the promise of finding regular ground,” Harris told Biden. “But I also believe, and it’s personalized. It was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and careers on the segregation of race in this country.”


Harris was referencing comments made last week about Biden's working relationship with two segregationist Democrats, however before she gave him a chance to answer, she broadened hey answer to include a personalized story about how bussing policies in California affected her childhood.


“And it was not only that, yet you also worked with them to oppose bussing,” Harris mentioned. “There was a little bit girl in California who was segment of the second class to develop public schools. And she was bussed to school day-to-day. And that little girl was me.”


Harris was referring to a move Biden made while in the 1970s, when he worked to prevent the Department of Education from integrating school busing, according to CNN. She went on to mention that while she was Attorney General of California, she needed all agents to wear body cameras. The applause was thunderous.


“It’s a mischaracterization of my position across the board,” Biden responded. “I did not praise racists. That isn't true.”


Harris pushed Biden, and asked if he regretted opposing bussing. He mentioned he didn’t oppose bussing and added that bussing should be a local supply, not a federal supply — language similar to that of old school anti-civil rights activists who knew that if desegregation was left up to the state, it would take a longer time for it to come to fruition.


“But there was a failure of states to implement public schools in America,” Harris responded. Then, she pointed to herself. “I was segment of the second class to develop Berkley California Public Schools almost two decades soon after Brown V. Education.”


“Because your city council made that decision,” Biden said.


“That’s once the federal government has to step in,” Harris mentioned. “That’s why we have the voting rights act and the Civil Rights Act. That’s why we need to pass the Equality Act. That’s why we need to pass the ERA. BEcause there really are moments in history where states fail to sustain the civil rights of all people.”


Biden started responding before cutting himself off saying — ”anyway, my time’s up.”